Ducks, poop and neighborhood disputes

February 17, 2013|By Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel

Duck dramas are not new to South Florida, where the feathered fowls have been the subject of heated disputes in recent years.

Here's a refresher:

In 2012, a group of neighbors in Oakland Park threatened to band together and stop paying their taxes unless the city rounded up a band of ducks and removed them. City officials cited federal law and said no can do.

"You just have to learn to live with it," Mayor Anne Sallee said.

The controversy amused resident John Fretwell, who had this advice: "If you don't want to be near them, then don't move next to a lake."

In 2011, a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood fumed when a resident created a makeshift duck sanctuary on her lawn.

"First it was two ducks, then 40 — where does it stop?" complained one resident.

A special magistrate ordered the woman to stop feedingtheducks or face fines of $100 a day.

She promised to comply.

In 2010, a Delray Beach man was arrested after allegedly attacking his neighbor for daring to feed the ducks.

In 2007, a Weston couple complained to their homeowners association about neighbors feeding the ducks. Soon after, ducks started turning up dead all over the neighborhood, hit by cars.

Killing the animals inhumanely – and that includes running them down with a car -- can get you five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. It's a third-degree felony under the state's animal cruelty law.